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Vale Sydney Morning Herald Rugby

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Thin Thighs

Ted Fahey (11)
The most incisive sports journalist at the SMH is Peter FitzSimons.

With you on that. Fitzy is an excellent journalist in my estimation. His narration and analysis on the Rise of Australian Rugby series was fantastic.

Problem with Fitzsimons is he is so far up his own arse that his articles are dripping with pretention and self-righteousness. His books aren't bad though.

I reckon HJ is taking the mickey with his observation on Fitzy. While I enjoy the Fitz Files for light reading on Saturday Mornings, it is about as incisive as a Big Mac is Fine Dining.

Fitzy however does not really pretend to be a serious journalist, whereas Growden and the rest do.

I sense a good troll from HJ. :fishing Well done him.
 

I like to watch

David Codey (61)
I reckon HJ is taking the mickey with his observation on Fitzy. While I enjoy the Fitz Files for light reading on Saturday Mornings, it is about as incisive as a Big Mac is Fine Dining.

Does anyone know whats going on with the red bandana?
Somebody say something to him pleeeeeeze
 

observer

Tom Lawton (22)
Does anyone know whats going on with the red bandana?
Somebody say something to him pleeeeeeze

I think he is going through a mid-life crisis but below is his explanation. Still confused?

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/talkingheads/txt/s2840435.htm

PETER THOMPSON: But before we do that, I must say you're the first person that's come on the program wearing a bandana.

PETER FITZSIMONS: You like it?

PETER THOMPSON: Yeah. You better tell the story of it.

PETER FITZSIMONS: Oh, we were in Cuba. My wife and I took our kids to Cuba. And just had a fantastic time and my boys bought this for me at one of the bazaars and I put it on and I like it. And so, I don't know. You wouldn't believe it but I'm slightly bald underneath.

PETER THOMPSON: Oh, you are? (LAUGHS)

PETER FITZSIMONS: When I'm outside, it keeps the sun off. And when it's cold, it keeps my head warm. And when I'm in a slightly volatile situation, I feel stronger. I feel, "Don't mess with me." As a mate of mine says, it makes me look like I'm on parole, trying to go straight, but don't push me. (LAUGHS)
 

DPK

Peter Sullivan (51)
That's actually a pretty convincing argument (I mean the part about sun protection outside/beanie warmth inside).
 

Gagger

Nick Farr-Jones (63)
Staff member
You mean apart from looking like a complete fucking cock?




Sorry Fitzy, it's da truth gangsta
 

Bowside

Peter Johnson (47)
At least you don’t have to pick up the courier mail of a morning and search it up and down for even an inch of rugby coverage. A lot of the time they don’t even bother writing an article, they just reprint the ARU press release.

The sooner the courier mail go's broke the better, it’s starting to rival the telegraph for quality.
 

Done that

Ron Walden (29)
From today, what used to be considered a decent, informative and useful coverage of Rugby Union in the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) can be deemed dead. The patient has been taken off life support, the corpse is being prepared for burial. The parrot is dead.

I remember the halcyon days of the SMH coverage of Rugby from some years back. The depth and expanse of the coverage, well crafted articles that captured the spirit, colour and passion of the game. Skillfully written by journalists/ writers with a deep knowledge and passion for the game. That no longer exists - the ever decreasing numbars of SMH reader are offered some paltry cliched rumour mongering by some cynical Rugby-hating hack whose interest and knowledge of the game shows an immense depth to its shallowness.

We have entered the finals of quite a few sports at the moment. Including Rugby and these finals for Rugby include the Shute Shield and and the various finals in Subbies. Real grasssroots, real sport and an integral part of the sport. And what of these finals do we see in the SMH..apart from team lists for the televised ABC games none. Pages and pages of League, AFL, Soccer, the Delhi Commonwealth Games (and that will be an icon of nightmarish sporting irrelevance)...even harnass racing for God's sake. But little or no relevant Rugby.

If it was the Daily Telegraph we would expect this ommission, but it is a sad decline of the coverage in the SMH. And I don't necessarily follow the argument that it is a lesser sport and so deserves less coverage: look at League, it is slavishly supported by the press and thus gets ratings and is deemed a popular supporty...hell, even bear baiting with pre-teen children with mild personality problems would be popular with the same coverage that League gets. A self-sustaining parasitic (or more kindly symbiotic) relationship between the sport and the media for mutual benefit.

Nothing like this for Rugby. And with the decline of Rugby we also see the gradual decline in Granny. Out have gone the sub-editors with a functional understanding of the English language and in have come the new breed of self-important, politically correct, self-appointed founts of knowledge, opinion and morality who sit back arrogantly in their ignorance and view comment contemptuously on those who aren't part of their clique. Where Kyle Sandilands gets greater media coverage than floods in Pakistan and is a greater hero than "Diggers" being brought back in pine boxes from Afghanistan.

Really it is all qquite a pity. A shame. Oh well, rant ends, time to move on, for to paraphrase someone of old to dwell upon it may be uncomfortably and wrenchingly distractive, so" No, I will weep no more. In such a night To shut me out? Pour on; I will endure.....O, that way madness lies; let me shun that; No more of that."

On a lighter note I recommend the Shiraz from this mob. https://www.chapelhillwine.com.au/ - Dan Murphy's at Willoughy occasionally has it on special.

Spot on.
And it is the same in Qld. The criticism should not be confined to the S.M.H. however.What about the other papers , T.V. & radio ?
Who knows anything about the state of the competition other than each club's diehards . And it is not just the final series of games that are important , what about the Club competition each week leading up to the finals ?
Of course the media can say that the lack of exposure is because of the lack of public interest (chicken & egg perhaps ? )
Nevertheless , it is the ultimate responsibility of the sports senior governing bodies i.e the A.R.U. & each of the states , to become involved & at least attempt to remedy the situation , rather than direct almost all of their energies
& financial resources to the representative end of the Rugby spectrum .
Failure to so do will ultimately & inevitably see the well run dry , & Rugby relegated to a local park sport.
 

Spewn

Alex Ross (28)
Fitzy can't write. An entertaining read but nothing special. Growden is so bad it's not funny. He is so biased towards NSW players it is an embarrassment. NSW rugby might be able to do something if they didn't have to put up with his criticism week in week out. What are his credentials?
 

naza

Alan Cameron (40)
I didn't realise Fitzsimons qualified as a rugby writer. I didn't realised he qualified as a writer. He might just be the biggest fuckwit on the planet bar Growden. His petty, 1950s, utter wanker, Reverend Fred Nile moral judgements are the most cringeworthy shit I've ever read.
 

Thin Thighs

Ted Fahey (11)
Fitzy promotes rugby through his column. So what if he is stereotypical. So are Roy and HG and look at the following they get.

He is always looking to push stories which show rugby in a good light, right down to the grass roots, whilst exposing the foibles of the other codes.

Nothing too deep or meaningful. Nothing too disappointing. Now Mr Growden.... well where do we start???
 

Spewn

Alex Ross (28)
TT

He is always willing to promote a junior rugby story but please nobody suggest he can write.
 

Thin Thighs

Ted Fahey (11)
About 98% of what TFF writes in his column is not his own words, apart from his occasional sprays about diveball, and the mungos.

Like I said earlier, he is to serious journalism as the Big Mac is to fine dining. Consistent, safe, tasteless.

Interesting to see that he nearly gets a page of this thread devoted to him, and the real non swimmers like Growden et al barely get a mention. These are the ones who are purportedly the actual paid professional Rugby Correspondents.

Fat lot of good we get from them.

The challenge is to get the quality of rugby dialogue high in Gaggerland, so we can all enjoy our footy fix despite the best(minimalist) efforts of the Courier Rag and SMH.
 

Thin Thighs

Ted Fahey (11)
P.S. Peter.......... Peter, Look at moi......... PETER! Look at moi, LOOK AT MOI !!!..... I've got one word to say to you about that stupid bandana on your melon..... Dick head
 

Elfster

Alex Ross (28)
The friday before the major semis, and apart from incomplete team lists...no reserves, unlike the lists fr the League U/20 and suburban Ryde cup no Rugby in the paper. And it is not as though their sports section is one or two pages.
 
C

centreman

Guest
Todays SMH is pathetic from a rugby prospective. 6 pages of league plus the back page, 2 pages AFL, 1 page cycling,1 page football and 3 pages of horse racing. Rugby diddly squat!! Not one single article. There are 13 Wallabies playing in the finals and heaps of Super 15 contracted players so surely the Sports Editor must see some value in even a half page article.
We should all send in our protest to this paper which is rapidly becoming decidedly anti rugby union.
 
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